We tried to visit the Hoh River Valley on 4th of July.  That was a mistake — the line to just get past the park entrance checkpoint was almost 2 hours.  We bailed and decided to come back another day.  Today was that day.  We still had to wait about 45 min to get in — popular place I guess.  We were planning on hiking to Five Mile Island which they say is 5 miles in but Strava says differently.  I think the extra distance was in the little side hikes for river viewpoints and the additional walk to the trailhead since we had to park in the campground.  Needless to say it was a long day — literally an entire day hike 🙂  The longest hike either one of us has ever done.  But the feeling of accomplishment for reaching File Mile Island made it worthwhile.  We were the only ones day hiking there — everyone else was backpacking and staying the night.  The view of the Hoh River and rolling forested hillsides behind it at Five Mile Island were stunning.

We packed tuna wraps and snacks — we ate through all of it and would have been nice to have more.  A bit more water would have been welcome too.  It was about 75 but felt pretty warm.  I took a quick dip in the river on the final mile.  Felt great but whoa the water was freezing.  It is glacial runoff that forms the Hoh River so duh it is going to be cold 🙂

It was about 7 pm before we made it back to the truck.  This area is really remote so not alot of food options.  Instead of going further out to Forks for a restaurant we decided to just head straight back to Copalis.  Only food option was gas station grub — we settled for chips and cheese dip and a sleeve of donuts.  Not so healthy but it satisfied until we got home.

A long day but a beautiful day of hiking and nature.